POT CLUB'S LEADER CALLS SELF CAREGIVER

Petaluma Man Takes Stand To Defend Against Drug Charges

The head of a medical marijuana buyers' club testified at his own trial
Monday about his purchases of marijuana for more than 1,200 patients who
considered him their caregiver.

Kenneth E. Hayes described how he bought from marijuana growers, or
"vendors," who were assigned secret code names, and how a narcotics officer
misinterpreted scraps of papers from those transactions to conclude he was
selling marijuana on the black market.

"He was wrong," Hayes said, explaining that the records represented
purchases he made on consignment for his medical marijuana patients, not
pot he sold that was grown in his Petaluma garden.

Sonoma County prosecutors are trying to convince a jury that Hayes, 33, and
co-defendant Michael S. Foley, 34, are guilty of marijuana cultivation and
possession for sale and were not just good Samaritans dispensing medicine
to ill people under the 1996 state law allowing the use of medical marijuana.

Hayes' King Road home and its 899-plant garden were raided in May of 1999.
Deputies found more than 14 pounds of processed marijuana, a pound of
hashish and a .22-caliber rifle with a mounted telescopic sight.

During his three-hour testimony on Monday, Hayes several times struggled to
contain his emotions as he spoke of medical marijuana patients who had
died, and why he took over the financially struggling buyers' club in San
Francisco in 1998, when it was two months behind on rent.

Hayes said he had a vision of providing social services to the people with
AIDS, HIV and other illnesses who went to the club -- not just dispensing
medical marijuana. Some of the services included support groups, free
dinners and soup to the mostly poor clientele.

He said the club was open every day of the year, including Christmas,
Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

Hayes' relationships with the growers underscored the vagaries of the state
law, which permits use of medical marijuana but doesn't specify how it
should be distributed. Hayes freely admitted he did not want much
information about the growers he bought from, including their real names,
because "what they were doing on their end was technically illegal."

He said he marked up the cost of marijuana to help cover rent, staff costs
and other expenses, something allowed by prior court decisions.

Under questioning by defense attorney William Panzer, he detailed his
contacts in San Francisco with neighborhood police officers, police
captains, District Attorney Terence Hallinan, the Board of Supervisors and
public health department employees, who visited and worked with the buyers'
club to ensure the patients were legitimate.

The club, known as Cannabis Helping Alleviate Medical Problems, or CHAMP,
"flourished under my direction," Hayes said.

Hayes, a nurse's assistant who previously worked with developmentally
disabled and Alzheimer's patients, said the benefits of medical marijuana
first became apparent to him when he saw an AIDS patient use it to suppress
uncontrolled vomiting.

Shortly afterward, Hayes started working with the Marin Alliance for
Medical Marijuana. Hayes, who said he uses medical marijuana himself for a
congenital hip problem, was growing 100 plants at his Fairfax home to
supply the cooperative when police called on him in November 1997. He said
some of the plants in the greenhouse were 8 feet tall, larger than those
seized in the Petaluma raid, but Fairfax police did not take them and
allowed him to continue growing.

On Monday, Hayes read a letter to the jury from former Fairfax Police Chief
Jim Anderson indicating he should get a use permit for his plants, but
there would be no criminal prosecution.

"It reaffirmed my belief that what I was doing was legal," Hayes said.

Sonoma County prosecutor Carla Claeys, who is expected to begin
cross-examining Hayes today, sought to keep out the testimony about the
Fairfax marijuana garden, saying each county offers different guidelines
about medical marijuana cultivation. She declined comment about Hayes'
testimony at the end of Monday's court session.

Claeys also got permission from Judge Robert Boyd to question Hayes about
"unexplained income," $4,000 in cash that was found in his vehicle when he
was stopped in June 1999, the month after the Petaluma bust.

Panzer said the money represented attorney's fees Hayes had collected to
pay for his defense.